slk Registered User (8/25/00 9:59:06 am) Reply Letters? Does anyone have any advice about sending programs letters from away rotations? Can it hurt your application? OrthoDoc ezOP (8/29/00 10:02:12 am) Reply Re: Letters? It's extremely common to receive LOR from away rotations. They are especially helpful if they are from well known orthopods. However, the downside is that sometimes they're hard to get and require repeated requests. I would suggest approaching them before you leave your rotation in hopes of getting it done while you're fresh in their memory. They do alert other programs of where your interests are, but I don't think that will hurt you unless the program is completely the opposite of where you are interviewing. Comments from others? OneRunner Global user (6/11/00 1:53:13 pm) Reply Letters Is it advisable to ask for letters of rec. from attendings at other institutions where one does an away AI? As well, on away AIs who, if anyone, should we meet with formally? Would it be advantageous to meet with the chair of the department or is that a foul? Kent Unregistered User (6/11/00 11:11:31 pm) Reply Chairman's Letters rule! I didn't do any away rotations, so I can't comment on the strength on a letter of recommendation from an attending during an away rotation. It that particular program is high on your list, it wouldn't seem to hurt to have a letter from somebody at that program. Remember, you can have as many letters of recommendation as you want, say ten of 'em. The catch is that ERAS will allow ONLY four (and generally most people have three letters...you'll need that fourth spot for transcipts, nicely formatted CVs and other documents that some programs will request). So what you could do is attach a letter of recommendation from that away attending to the application to that attending's program. I'm not sure how powerful that particular letter would be at other programs (unless they are a department Chairman). You NEED a Chairman's Letter (from your home program) to make a strong application, so that's one letter that every program will get. The other letters should be from orthopaedics attendings (Chairman>professor>assistant professor>clinical instructor in terms of strength), perhaps a surgery letter if there was something special about your work on the surgery rotation. Letters from other areas (especially non-surgical) don't carry nearly the weight that a good orthopaedics letter will and probably aren't worth seeking (unless you've got nothing better). As far as your question about talking with the Chairman of the program where you're doing an away, my question is "then why are you doing an away rotation there?" The whole point of an away is to show your stuff at programs you'd like to attend. It couldn't hurt to introduce yourself, and, if you truly work hard and distinguish yourself, ask for a letter of recommendation. You can attach that particular letter to that particular program, or if this guy is well known and he'll write you a strong letter (he's gotta know you, know your excellent hard work if you expect a strong letter), then you might consider sending it to all programs (this assumes you've also got a strong Chairman's Letter from your home program). Don't, don't ever replace YOUR program's Chairman's Letter with a Chairman's Letter from another program because people will probably wonder why you couldn't get one from your own programs and were forced to use one from somewhere else. Good luck! Chief Resident Unregistered User (6/12/00 5:15:13 am) Reply letters You should get letters from anyone you think will write you a great one. People who are well known nationally do carry more weight than community orthopedists. People who know you well and can really talk about you are also more important. Your letters are what make or break you application. Really. Grades, board scores are secondary. wren Local user (6/13/00 11:57:13 am) Reply letter trick given the importance of letters, it is possible to send 4 letters with your ERAS. Simply append your CV to your personal statement, adding a comment at the bottom that your CV follows. This way you can get 4 letters, which really are perhaps the most important part of your application. After all, this is the real world and you are trying to get a job...people trust who they know. CS Registered User (8/30/00 7:23:08 pm) Reply More questions about letters of rec... 1)Is it better to get all 3 or 4 letters from ortho or does anyone want to see one non-ortho (gen surg or medicine) for variety/well-roundedness? 2)Is there anything wrong/weird about getting more han one from the same hospital (say overall chair, chair of ortho subspecialty, and guy you did research with) or does that make people think you're only interested in that particular program? =================================